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Are children becoming an inconvenience?

The World Today Archive - Friday, 17 November , 2000 00:00:00

Reporter: Rebecca Carmody

COMPERE: No dogs and no children allowed. Have we actually become a society that looks upon children as an inconvenience?

Well, some bed and breakfast signs would have you believe that. Others say yes. And it could explain why, for the first time in Australian history, women are giving birth in their 30s rather than their 20s.

What's also worrying demographers, though, in figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics this week, is the overall number of births down by another 4.3 per cent on the previous year. And that is well below the population replacement rate, it seems.

Professor Peter McDonald is the Head of Demography at the Australian National University. He's also Chairman of the International Association of Demographers. He's been telling our reporter, Rebecca Carmody, the Government is simply not doing enough to encourage reproduction and change community attitudes which have swung in favour of child free zones.

DR PETER MCDONALD: Well, I think it is quite significant. The age of having children has been getting older and older, particularly having the first child, for about 20 years. And as people have their children at older and older ages, that means they're less likely to have a larger number of children. So if they have their first child at 35, maybe they're going to stop at one. If they have their first child at 32 they'll - maybe they're going to stop at two. So it has a flow-on effect. The total number of children that we're having in Australia.

REBECCA CARMODY: Are we approaching the stage then, when for many women motherhood won't be an option because they're just too old?

DR PETER MCDONALD: Yeah, well, that's right. It's not just physiological reasons. It does, from the early 30's onwards, the physiological capacity to have children starts to fall fairly quickly. But it's also the social reasons that people have developed a lifestyle and it's more difficult to fit children into that lifestyle.

REBECCA CARMODY: Is it too simplistic to put the trend down to women becoming more career focused?

DR PETER MCDONALD: Well, it certainly is that. But this is not to say that children should not be career focused because obviously that's the kind of society that we want. But as women have become more career focused we haven't adjusted the rest of our society. So we've allowed women to be - you know, we've developed a society where young women can compete with young men in the labour force and in education. But we haven't changed the rest of society to recognise this. The rest of society still tends to be - revolve around a male breadwinner image of the family that everybody has a wife at home, or that, you know, the family itself is still male breadwinner oriented.

REBECCA CARMODY: Have we then turned into a society that's anti-child?

DR PETER MCDONALD: That kind of runs along with this trend. I don't think that's really a deliberate trend. But as children become less in evidence, obviously for those who don't have children, which of course narrows - those who don't have young children is, you know, by far the majority of the population, then, you know, children are seen as a nuisance and we get the kind of no dogs or children allowed kind of approach.

So that, you know, I think we do become a less child-friendly society.

REBECCA CARMODY: Well, if women and men, for that point, are prepared to give up work, is there any way that this trend can be reversed?

DR PETER MCDONALD: Well, the only way to reverse it is to recognise that this is a reality. That women are going to be working and that men are going to be working. Mothers are going to be working, fathers are going to be working. And we need to develop a society which supports that situation. That is, we need - it's essentially work and family policies which are the most important aspect of stopping the fall in the birthrate.

It is also important to recognise that children cost money, and cost a lot of money. And, you know, as a second string in policy, we do need to recognise that those who have children have greater costs and if we really want children in the society then we need to be compensating people who have children for those greater costs.

COMPERE: Professor Peter McDonald is Head of Demography at the Australian National University. And he was speaking to Rebecca Carmody.